Birth and Death Records

NEW! As of April 25, 2017, our office can issue certified birth and death certificates for births (in the last 100 years) and deaths (in the last 50 years) that occurred anywhere in the State of Tennessee and not just Hamilton County.

The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Office of Vital Records registers
original certificates of death events which occur in Hamilton County.
This office maintains copies of death records filed with the Tennessee
Office of Vital Records and can access birth records by computer,
which are available to the person named on the record and to certain
family members or legal representatives. Copies of birth and
death certificates are certified and include a raised, embossed
seal. Parents can also add the father's name to a child's birth
certificate with a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAoP).

A computer generated certified birth certificate for the last 100 years is available
for persons born in TN. Computer generated birth certificates will
be processed while you wait. Certified copies of the original records
are available to the person named on the record and to certain family
members or legal representatives. If you request a birth certificate through
the mail, it is usually returned to the customer within one to five
days of the date received.

The fee will be $15.00 for each certified copy.

You will need to provide Vital Records with the following
information:

full name on certificate

date of birth

place of birth

mother's maiden name and father's name

a check or money order made payable to Hamilton County

your signature and relationship to the person named on the
birth record

a photocopy of a government form of ID, which includes the
signature of the requester.

Identification Requirements for Births:

If the application is signed and notarized, no additional
identification documents are required.

If the actual mother’s copy of a birth certificate is for
the prior or current year and is submitted as the application
and the response is being mailed or presented to a parent, no
additional identification documents are required.

Otherwise, you will need one item from the first list
OR two items from the second list.

Death records are issued for events occurring in Tennessee within the last 50 years. Cause of death is available
only to the decedent's parent, child, spouse, or an attorney or
agency acting on behalf of the decedent's estate, or qualifying
family member. Please submit a photocopy of a government issued
form of identification which includes your signature. Copies of
any legal documents, where applicable, should also be submitted.

The fee will be $15.00 per certified copy.

You will need to provide Vital Records with the following information:

full name on certificate

date of death

sex and age at death

county of death

name and location of funeral home

the purpose for the copy of the certificate

a check or money order made payable to Hamilton County

your signature and relationship to the person named on the
birth record

a photocopy of a government form of ID, which includes the
signature of the requester

the address to which the original should be mailed

a daytime telephone number

You may also request certificate by mailing required information
to our address listed under birth records information.
Our fax number is (423) 209-8024 if you prefer to pay with
Discover, Visa
or Mastercard. You may call us at (423) 209-8025 with your credit
card information.
For your convenience, applications for certificates can be obtained
online from the TN Office of Vital Records at http://tn.gov/assets/entities/health/attachments/PH-1663.pdf You can complete the form and mail to our office.

Most information from Hamilton County births for the years 2012 to 2016, or deaths
for the years 2011-2016, can be provided to any requester as a
hand written transcript. The death verification does not include
cause of death. This is called a verification.

Requests for verification should be made in writing. You must
provide enough information so that our staff can locate the record
you would like verified. The fee is $15.00 per record per year searched. This
fee is charged for the search for the record and is not refunded
even if no record is found. Applications for verification's can be
obtained online at
http://tn.gov/health/article/vr-applications

You may complete the front side of the form and submit it to Hamilton
County Vital Records in Chattanooga, TN by mail or by fax at (423)
209-8024. Please allow one week for the search and we will mail or
fax the information to you.

For birth records more than 100 years old and death records more than 50+ years old, check with the Tennessee State Library and Archives here http://sos.tn.gov/tsla/history

The State Vital Records Office can be contacted at (615) 741-1763 (Central Time Zone).

Expedited orders for births and deaths

The Tennessee Office of Vital Records in Nashville provides expedited services
for an additional charge for copies of birth and death certificates.
You may call or fax your request and charge it to your credit card. The phone number for credit card requests is
(866) 233-0740; the fax is (866) 234-8802, or you can order online
at http://www.vitalchek.com/.

After a child’s birth certificate has been recorded at the TN
Office of Vital Records, parents who did not acknowledge paternity
in the hospital may go to the local health department for assistance
in acknowledging paternity. Unmarried parents can make an appointment
at the Hamilton County Vital Records Office to add the father to
the certificate through the paternity acknowledgment process. Call
(423) 209-8025 to schedule an appointment.